My mother in law has experienced significant muscular atrophy in recent years especially in her legs. I could probably compare them to the same circumstance of the forearm of a 10 year old. She is also getting worse. She struggles to get out of bed, cannot lower herself down onto the toilet properly (she just drops) etc.
She works as a cleaner and went to the doctors a few days ago. The doctor told her to reduce her activity levels, cut down her work hours (they claimed if she carries on walking to work as much as she does her legs are going to give way in a year - hmmm, nocebo anyone?).
This sounds like medical malpractice to me (not necessarily from a legal standpoint because the law on this is somewhat of a fuzzy subject) but from a medical point of view.
I’m fairly furious to say the least - seems like they want to dismiss her problem. She is now convinced she needs to remain bed ridden for the next few weeks to get better.
Am I correct in suggesting that they have screwed her over? Also, she trusts me, so I am thinking about holding her/supporting her and getting her to do very high/above parallel body weight squats a couple times a week until she can do a full one. Even just for a few easy reps. Kind of like a more long term, range of motion LP with her own bodyweight.
What are your thoughts?
NB: she is 62 years old, not overweight, has no history of resistance training. She is also diabetic and taking gliclazide. She also has high blood pressure and is taking amlodipine.
While they may indeed have delivered a bit of “nocebo” here, I am not qualified to comment on your legal concerns – though I suspect you’d have an awfully difficult time making such a case.
Does she have a medical diagnosis/reason to explain her atrophy? Or is it just disuse atrophy (i.e., due to inactivity)?
Yeah I’m definitively not considering legal action. I’m a trainee lawyer in the UK and proving a breach of duty is terribly hard in the medical context (unless it was extremely grave). Proving causation is even more difficult.
She has not had a medical diagnosis. It comes down to a inactivity and poor genetics. I have seen her lose muscle mass over the years and she doesn’t have an eating disorder. She grew up in a village in Ghana, not sure if it stems back to that.
Her doctor has persuaded her however that the weakness she is developing in her legs is down to too much walking. She walks to work most days which takes around 45 minutes. She was advised to rest for as long as she can for a couple of weeks. My concern with this is further muscular atrophy, esp. if down to disuse. The issue with her legs was actually brought up during a consultation relating to her diabetes. The NHS over here has quite tight time constraints regarding consultations and anything secondary (e.g. her legs) is often dealt with very swiftly.
I understand that without a formal consultation you can probably only give limited advice, but do you think it may be worth getting her on her feet and just helping her to slowly squat? She trusts me and is usually open to my advice. Alternatively, do you think she would be better visiting her doctor again to consult with them specifically on this issue as there may be something going on that has been undiagnosed?
I don’t have enough information to tell you whether or not I’d suspect an undiagnosed condition.
But if she doesn’t have any medical issues, the idea that she is developing weakness and atrophy due to “too much walking” is silly, and she needs to train.